**********************************************************************
* Special Bulletin - The Electronic AIR *
* *
* ERIC Clearinghouse *
* *
* The Electronic Newsletter *
* of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) *
* Serving Institutional Research Professionals *
* and Those Engaged in Mgt. Research, Policy Analysis & Planning *
* *
* 4/30/03. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Volume 23, Number 11 *
* *
* Editor: Timothy Chow, Rose-Hulman IT *
* (mailto:Timothy.Chow@rose-hulman.edu) *
* Jobs Editor: Gail Fishman, AIR *
* (mailto:gfishman@mailer.fsu.edu) *
*Subscription Mgt.: Norm Gravelle, Assoc. for Institutional Research *
* (mailto:air@mailer.fsu.edu) *
* Suggestion: Easier to Read Using a Monospace Font Such as Courier *
* Get Back Issues at: http://ira.rose-hulman.edu/E-AIR *
**********************************************************************
* Current Subscribers = 3034 *
* Next Issue Target Publication Date: 5/26/03 *
* Next Issue Copy Deadline: 5/23/03 *
**********************************************************************
SUBJECT: ERIC Clearinghouse
PREPARED: Richard A. Voorhees, President
Association for Institutional Research
Dear Electronic AIR Readers:
The Association for Institutional Research Board would like to inform
you of an emerging issue that may affect your access to data and
information about higher education. The federal government is
proposing sweeping changes to ERIC. The current ERIC contract ends
on December 31, 2003. On April 10, the Department of Education
released a draft statement:
http://www1.eps.gov/EPSData/ED/Synopses/3286/Reference-Number-ERIC2003/ERICDraftSOW.doc
of work for the ERIC system for the next contract period. As
proposed, the ERIC system will be reduced from 16 subject-specific
Clearinghouses to one central automated Clearinghouse. There will be
no subject specific Clearinghouse web sites, no on-site content
experts to answer questions or perform searches, no ERIC Digests, no
bibliographies, and, possibly, no New Directions for Community
Colleges, or ASHE ERIC Reports. Furthermore, additions to the
database will be no longer be made with scholarly input. Instead,
they will be selected by non-scholars from a pre-approved list of
journals, conferences, association, and organizations. Thus, expert
monitoring of the quality of research acquired for the database will
be eliminated and important contributions from many colleges and
independent scholars will no longer be part of the database.
By law, the Department is required to allow for public comment on
this draft statement of work. There is no guarantee that letters of
support and other testimony will change the proposed statement of
work. If you wish to offer support for the valuable services that
ERIC has provided to education scholars and practitioners since 1966,
please send your comments to the following people before May 9 at
4:00 p.m. Eastern Time:
(1) Your U.S. senators and elected representatives (contact
information available at http://www.vote-smart.org
(2) Copy each letter to Secretary of Education, Rod Paige,
mailto:Rod.Paige@ed.gov Fax number: 202-401-0596
(3) Copy each letter to Jeff Halstead (the contract specialist
collecting official responses to the draft statement):
mailto:Jeff.C.Halsted@ed.gov Fax number:202-708-9817.
A draft template for your written response also is available at
http://www.saveeric.org/letter.htm or you may choose to create your
own letter. Apparently, faxes of letters written on your
institutional letterhead are most effective, but e-mails are also
welcome. If you send e-mail, please make sure that you include your
full physical mailing address at the bottom of the letter or the
message may be discarded.
Thank you,
Richard A. Voorhees, President
Association for Institutional Research
**********************************************************************
* If you wish to subscribe, change your e-mail address, or request a *
* subscription for someone else, send it to Norm Gravelle, AIR Exec- *
* utive Office, (air@mailer.fsu.edu) [Florida State University]. *
* If you have AIR news, send it to Timothy Chow, Editor, at: *
* (Timothy.Chow@rose-hulman.edu) [Rose-Hulman Inst. of Technology]. *
* (Please limit submissions to 72 characters or fewer per line and *
* use mixed case, NOT ALL CAPS--NO NEED TO SHOUT.) *
* If you have news for the SCUP electronic newsletter, send it to *
* Terry Calhoun, SCUP Communications Director,(tcalhoun@scup.org). *
* For further information regarding individual or organizational *
* membership in the Association for Institutional Research, contact *
* Terrence Russell, Executive Director, AIR, 222 Stone Bldg., *
* Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4462; *
* Telephone: (850) 644-4470 or on Internet: (air@mailer.fsu.edu). *
* AIR WebPage: http://airweb.org *
**********************************************************************